SOH male cheerleader tells all...

Hey Raiders!!! Yea!!!
By Omar Arce


At SOH we think of cheerleaders as loud spontaneous girls who get the crowd excited during pep assemblies and football games. But what about loud spontaneous boys? As many of you know, Soh has a male cheerleader: his name is Enrique Galindo, a senior. Galindo started cheer last school year, but this year could be the year for him to leave his mark in SOH cheer history. Raiders Digest had the opportunity to interview Enrique Galindo about his experience as a cheerleader.

Raiders Digest: Did you ever play sports?

Enrique Galindo: No, I did not play any sports. I don't know why.

RD: Why did you decide to become a cheerleader?
EG: I always stayed after school. So I watched the cheerleaders practice, and I became interested. I also joined cheer to prove that it is not only for girls.

RD: What does your family think about it?

EG: I have their full support.

RD: Have you ever receive any negative comments for being in cheer?

EG: Not that I know. And if they say anything, then I don't care.

RD: If you the chance, would you change from cheer leading to play a varsity sport?

EG: I would try to be in a sport and cheer, but would not quit cheer.

RD:How was your first practice?

EG: I remember that it was fun. It was not very difficult because I am fast learner.

RD: How did the girls treat you?

EG: At first the girls were very excited because they had a guy in the team. They were very nice to me. And we got along easily,

RD: How was your first game?

EG: I was really nervous. It was the first game and I had to cheer in front of everyone, something I had never done before.

RD: Now that you have experience, how do you feel before the games?

EG: I feel confident, not nervous at all. I'm used to cheering in front of crowds now. I feel relaxed and excited before the games.

RD: What is the most difficult thing about cheer leading? And the easiest thing?

EG: The most difficult thing about cheer is the running and the sit ups, the rest is relatively easy.

RD: What skills do you need to be a cheerleader

EG: To be a cheerleader you need flexibility, strength, and most importantly school spirit.

RD: What advice would you give to any boys interested in cheerleading?

EG: Join. Do not be afraid of what other people say. Just go for it.

As the first home football game approaches, Galindo prepares to give it all to support the Raiders. Be sure to attend the games and support the cheer squad, and do not be afraid of asking Enrique Galindo how he feels.

GO-O-O-OL!!! DE MEXICO!!!

Tricolor triumphs over Stars and Stripes

By Martin Zazueta

August 12, 2009, the aftermath of el partido was wild and crazy, the celebrations would make one reminisce about a spring break party in Mexico, but actually it was the loyal, ecstatic fans of the Mexican team. The streets were filled with fans cheering and chanting songs like "Cielito Lindo".

Most of you, while texting a friend to tell you the score or if a teacher actually had the game playing in the room, waited eagerly to know the result of Wednesday's football showdown in Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, between the United States and Mexico. It was, of course, 2-1 Mexico- a victory that echoed last month's victory over the U.S. in New Jersey, an epic game that resulted in a 5-0 shutout for Mexico, who had earned the Gold Cup after the victory.

But what does this win mean for Mexico? There is actually no immediate gain from defeating the U.S. because the U.S. is still in 3^rd place of the Round 4 preliminaries with 10 points, while Mexico is trailing in 4^th place with 9 points. What this does do is increase the morale and keep the spirit of competition going as there are still several games left in the preliminaries.

Teachers of the Sweetwater Union High School District still have no contract.

SEA, district fail to reach agreement



By Elma Gonzalez

With the old contract having expired on June 30, 2008, the Sweetwater Educators' Association (SEA)began to engage in negotiations with the district to settle on a new contract. However, as the bargaining process began, both the teacher's union and the district realized they had very different convictions regarding the new contract. According to SEA, the district did not appear to be bargaining in "good faith" and did not "take the process seriously"; they claimed the district embarked in "regressive bargaining" meaning the district’s proposals became less favorable as bargaining progressed, forcing the union to file a protest against unfair labor practices. The district responded by filing a countersuit against SEA for stalling the process, which has so far taken more than a year.

Among the several issues prolonging the process are the elimination of Montgomery High's 4x4 schedule, the proposed two-tier retirement system, and the establishment of a fair staffing ratio. As most of us know, Montgomery High was, until this year, the only high school in our district to have the 4x4 schedule or quarter schedule -which divided each day between 4 periods. When the decision was made by the district to impose a new schedule on Montgomery, SEA claimed the teacher's rights were violated. It was not the fact that they no longer enjoyed the advantages of the old schedule, but that the union was not consulted when the change was made. The district tells a different story. They assert the union was consulted, and that the only problem was that the change in schedule was not able to go through the whole 'formal process' because the MOH school year was rapidly arriving and the master schedule had to be made. As for the reason behind this change, the district claims it was made as an attempt to improve the students' scores and eliminate the school's PI status. Although this issue does not affect SOH directly, there are others like the 'staffing ratio' that hit closer to home.

According to the old contract, there should be a student/teacher ratio of 28:1; but how many times have we entered classrooms in which there are more than 40 students. Just two weeks ago, an AP Econ class consisted of more than forty five students, almost double the limited amount. Although, some decided to switch to some other class, an excessive number still remains. Now, you may wonder, how come the old contract is being used to limit the number of students per teacher? Well, the rules of collective bargaining state that the “old” contract must be enforced until the two teams come to an agreement. When the district was questioned about this their answer was that there were actually two ratios: the 28:1 ratio and the 176:1 ratio, which represents a full school day. In other words, the only restriction is having a limit of 176 students per day.

Another issue that stands above the rest is the implementation of the two-tier retirement system, a system that denies retirement benefits to new members of the district. Many teachers believe that this is unjust for new teachers. Although it may not seem to affect the students directly, if SUHSD does not offer the same incentives as other districts in San Diego; it would put SUHSD at a huge disadvantage when attracting new teachers. For the students, this would mean fewer teachers would be available to 'teach' at our district in future years.

Representatives of theSweetwater Union High School District state that they believe the main reason they haven't come to an agreement with the union is simply a difference in opinions. One example they gave deals with the teachers' salary; while teachers demand a raise to survive in the current recession, the district is undergoing a fiscal crisis that prevents them from doing so.

When entering the District website, one of the first news articles that appears is that of the district reaching an agreement with Sweetwater Employee Unions on new contracts. However, the agreement was reached with unions representing counselors, clerical workers, paraprofessionals and operations support, not teachers. Our teachers continue to press for a fair contract. When asked about a possible strike, a Union representative assured the Union was, "most unlikely to have such a drastic response," the top priority for the SUHSD teachers is of course " the students' education."

Hopefully, our district and teachers will compromise at the next board meeting on August 17, 2010.

Southwest Band is still recruiting new members.

Band needs you!
By Jasmine Straw

Man-oh-man, is band getting going! This week in band the students finally met the rest of their coaches! They have their new color guard coach, their high brass coach, their percussion coach, their low brass coach, and their woodwind coach who are all eager to get to work.
After a quick meeting on the senior lawn, Ms. Clark suggested a fun game. Everyone got chairs and sat in a circle. The person in the middle of the circle had to say "I like everyone in this band, especially those who....." finishing the sentence with something. The ones that do or like whatever the person in the middle said had to scramble to find another seat. Rinse&Repeat. Everyone had a lot of fun with the game and learned a lot about each other like who's played Final Fantasy games or first person shooters, even who liked a member's "ghetto-ness".
Tuesday everyone got to work. Work means WORK! Wind insruments worked on their attention, faces, and marking time. Every little detail counts. Judges can be really picky at times, so working on the basics is the best and only place to start. All the while, drum line was working on their warm-ups and getting to know their coach.
To fix the member's attention stance, the coaches had them go to the stage to see if they could roll their hips out so that the hole you make with the floor and the arch of your back go away. This proved a difficult feat, but after a while everyone got it. They then moved to the wall, the deadly wall, for some much loved wall sits, because those are everyone's favorite, right? To end the day everyone 'high fived' each other and stayed in the band room to get their stuff or just hang out.
On to Thursday!
Thursday proved to be the best day. Practice started at 5:00, so a lot of the members went home to eat or just stayed around school to hang out. Once practice started, it was really fun. It started out a little weird: they were made to do breathing exercises from a video that was made who knows how long ago, but everyone had fun with the silly thing and even danced to the music that was in between sections. After this they got to playing music.
Outside was our wonderful color guard and drum line. Each practices their own things. Color with tosses and attention, which included getting to know each other, and making nicknames for some of the guard members. Drum line started with their warm-ups and how to move with the drums on them.
Once the three groups were done doing their own things, everyone marched out to the football field to do more work. Stretching was an odd activity, having to do stretches that actually stretched them! But people had fun with a little dancing and jerking. After stretching the drummers left the group once again to practice more, leaving the guard and band to their own devices. Marking time, marching and attention.
The drummers joined us again for an interesting and hard activity, marching in a straight line across the width of the football field. Many times they messed up in the beginning, but it for even more frustrating when they made it half way there only to be told to go back. Even though it was hard, it was really helpful and a lot of jokes were made.
To end the day and the week of practice, they ended with a quick game of freeze tag! Who said you couldn't have fun? NO ONE!

Within the three weeks of school, band has quadrupled in size, this includes band, color guard, and drum line. But that doesn't mean we're done!
If you're interested in joining any of the three, stop by the band room at any time throughout the day and talk to Ms. Clark!

"We es muy bueno" - Micheal, the woodwind coach.

Senior lawn, the social gathering spot for countless raiders throughout the years, is now subject to change.

Senior lawn may disappear!

By Dwayne Codding

Due to Prop O, our school has received a considerable amount of funding to help renovate the campus's learning environment. This means that a two-story building, shaped like an L and complete with an elevator for the handicapped, is soon to be constructed over the senior lawn. This building is meant to replace several temporary which currently are in use , so indeed there will be benefits in this new construction.

Bu,t, what do our Raiders have to say about this? Is this construction really a good idea?

“Well, yes and no. That's not were I hang out but, at the same time, it's the SENIOR lawn...Well, I think its better than being in the trailers.” responded Kiana Aguan, a senior raider.

“I'm kinda on the yes and no because it's the senior lawn and why would the school take that away, right? Then again classrooms are important too” decided Sandra Madrigal, another senior raider.

Plans suggest this new building is meant to still attract Raiders, even though the lawn won't quite be the same anymore. Mr. Carpizo, Assistant Principal, spoke of the new building, saying “I hope that it will be the gathering spot for all the kids to hang out.”

HEY, RAIDERS! What do you think about this new building? Should it be built? Speak up and leave a comment with what you have to say about this.

Welcome back to an early school year

by Martin Zazueta
What's with the new calendar?

Pardon me for this sudden dose of reality, but "Calling all my fellow SOH Raiders!" Yes, we are back in school as of July 27, 2009 and school will end on June 4, 2010 (May 28, 2010 for seniors). And yes, I know it's frustrating to know that we had to had to rearrange 6 weeks of our summer, but it's not all bad. There are several benefits will come from this calendar modification.

As most of us may know last Fall the Sweetwater District School Board voted on standardizing the schools in the district into a single calendar, for about half the schools were in either a year- round, traditional, or as in Montgomery High's case a quarter system. Now with all those schools being in session and out of session at different times, energy, water, and other resources (i.e. school buses) were being used almost at all times of the year and made the transition of transferring from one school to another a lot more of a hassle than it should have been. Now, all the students in the district are in school at the same time. We must also not forget how much this will help AP and IB students prepare for their exams as well for those taking SATs and ACTs.

Let's focus on another significant benefit of this change, one that you probably care about the most. It is that most schools now have extended breaks( SOH being one of them), because of those 6 weeks that were taken from summer we will now have a 2-week Fall Break, a now extended 3-week Winter Break , and an also extended 2-week Spring Break. And of course we will also end early. This will also benefit any current and future graduating class for if they go into the UC system after high school they will start school around mid-September and it's similar for the CSU system, so that means a much longer summer before college begins, which give you more time for anything you may have wanted to do after high school like a trip or project. Who knows? Be creative.

On another level of importance of this change was that thanks to this change the school district was able to save money and thus it helped out in balancing the budget which was a major issue in the Spring when it came to laying off teachers due to budget cuts.

In conclusion, I would like to wish you good luck on this upcoming school, and let's remember to make lemonade out these lemons that fell from a short Summer Break.

The Proposal, is an I do!

Sandra Bullock is one of the most likable and skilled comediennes in movies today, but she hasn't had a comedy hit since the first Miss Congeniality nine years ago. That's about to change with The Proposal, an engaging, well-crafted lark that proves "high concept" isn't necessarily a tired tactic.

Bullock also is talented enough to play convincingly against her genial image here as the proverbial boss from hell, Margaret Tate, a hard-driving New York book editor. Choreographer-turned-director Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses, Step Up) delivers a well-paced, highly attractive production. Summer audiences, especially the female segment, should have no hesitation accepting this "Proposal".

Peter Chiarelli's script borrows a page or two from The Devil Wears Prada in the opening scenes, as Margaret's fearsome reputation literally precedes her among her frantic office staff. Chief among these is her younger, underappreciated assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), who harbors his own ambitions to become an editor.

Margaret has been so focused on her career, she's neglected a few legalities and is suddenly informed that she faces deportation to her native Canada. Desperate to keep her job, she impulsively "confesses" that she and Andrew are engaged to be married. Andrew grudgingly agrees to the charade, on condition that he finally gets that book editor position.

The forced romance coincides with a major family celebration back in Andrew's hometown of Sitka, Alaska, where, Margaret discovers, the Paxton tribe is a very big, affluent deal. Andrew's mother, Grace (Mary Steenburgen), is warm and welcoming, but his formidable dad, Joe (Craig T. Nelson), who has always resented his son's rejection of the family business, is skeptical about this older woman in Andrew's life.

And then there's Annie, the outspoken and mischievous 90-year-old matriarch played with scene-stealing ebullience by TV icon Betty White. Also in the mix is Gertrude (Malin Akerman of Watchmen), the sweet, pretty Alaska girl Andrew abandoned for the big city.

Chiarelli's script mines all the fish-out-of-water humor of the business-dressed, cell phone-dependent Margaret's immersion in the more laid-back and sometimes downright odd culture of picturesque Sitka (actually doubled by towns in Massachusetts).

Starting the film as a borderline caricature of an unpleasant workaholic, Bullock convincingly peels back the layers of Margaret, revealing the pain behind her steely facade and the vulnerability that surfaces as she and Andrew get to know each other better amid the tense masquerade. By midpoint, we're actually rooting for this erstwhile office gargoyle.

It helps immeasurably that Bullock has tremendous chemistry with Reynolds. The former TV actor and Van Wilder cutup has been getting a lot of work lately but hasn't quite broken through as a star. The Proposal should remedy that.

He matches Bullock's comic timing note for note and conveys all of Andrew's frustration, exasperation and growing attraction to Margaret. (His remarkably fit physique also is a box office plus.) The situations might be formulaic, but the teamwork of the two leads brings them to sparkling life.

By Robert Garcia